Saturday, June 02, 2007

Nasawatch has the latest in Mike Griffin's war with Earth Science. He got asked how NASA planned to respond to the NRC's report on Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond". The gist of his reply was

The NRC advice is not really intended for NASA; they are fully aware that the choices are not mine to make. The real target for their advice is the Congress, which in the end has the final power to adjust the amount of money being spent by the nation on Earth Science.Thus, our response to the recent Earth Sciences decadal will be to respect, insofar as possible, their assessment of scientific priorities, while continuing to take direction on budgetary matters from the White House and Congress.

Before the US election the dour bunny was of the opinion that at a minimum Columbia University was about to receive a gift of GISS. Whether it would be silly enough to accept the donation was another story. Goddard, Langley, JPL, Ames and Glenn were in deep trouble too, as was the entire agency. In one scenario aeronautics would go to the FAA leaving a rump Confederate Space Exploration Agency centered around Johnson, Kennedy, Marshall and Stennis. Kennedy would be renamed Strom Thurmond Space Center.

Griffin's statement may have come across as ignorant, but it was almost certainly not just a passing comment.

My guess is that it was the very purpose of the interview -- meant to counteract studies/warnings by climate scientists like those in the IPCC and this most recent one one from James Hansen and others:

http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/2007/2007_Hansen_etal_1.pdf

Bush has apparently reached his patience limit with Hansen and has apparently instructed Griffin to "Put the man in his place".

And Griffin was undoubtedly more than happy to oblige, since Hansen attracts so much media attention on global warming which causes Griffin headaches with the Bush admin.

I have no doubts of that this whole thing was orchestrated, particularly coming as it did right before the recent G8 meeting.

It's the old "Play the idiot" game. The Bush administration is very good at this game. They have one of their people say something that appears stupid on its face. Then they claim afterward that it was just his/her "opinion".

But the damage is done, of course and now they (and others) can quote that "opinion" in the future in support of doing nothing on global warming. Works like a charm as long as everyone thinks you are an idiot.

Bush has been playing this game for his entire career in politics.

The real idiots are not the ones who play this game, but instead the ones who buy into it -- we, the American people.

Can you imagine what a slap in the face it is to someone like Hansen who has worked so hard to get the American public to listen on the issue of global warming to have some clown like Griffin undermine everything he has worked for in a matter of seconds?

Besides being ignorant, Griffin has demonstrated beyond all doubt that he is incredibly irresponsible.

If you were an astronaut, would you entrust your life to decisions made by such a person?

It was a slap in the face when that crypto Greeniac Richard M. Nixon ended the manned exploration programs. He unwisely listened to those who were spewing "it is immoral to continue manned missions when children are starving, napalm is burning, and Mother Earth is dying .... man!"

Now, here is a real man, just like JFK, standing up and attempting to get things back on track.

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Eli Rabett

Eli Rabett, a not quite failed professorial techno-bunny who finally handed in the keys and retired from his wanna be research university. The students continue to be naive but great people and the administrators continue to vary day-to-day between homicidal and delusional without Eli's help. Eli notices from recent political developments that this behavior is not limited to administrators. His colleagues retain their curious inability to see the holes that they dig for themselves. Prof. Rabett is thankful that they, or at least some of them occasionally heeded his pointing out the implications of the various enthusiasms that rattle around the department and school. Ms. Rabett is thankful that Prof. Rabett occasionally heeds her pointing out that he is nuts.